ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Talking To or Talking At? Or Even Talking at All?

Nonprofit Arts Leaders: Don’t tell them about your mission, show them how you are fulfilling it. Don’t just present, discuss. ...

A Second Look at ‘Algren’ Touched by a Documentary Ode to Nelson Algren

Some years ago I criticized Michael Caplan's documentary ode to Nelson Algren as the cinematic equivalent of a pop tart. Now that I've had another look I see that I was very wrong.

David Stout shares how to use AI to create extraordinary musical compositions

David Stout, Professor of Composition Studies and Coordinator of the Initiative for Advanced Research in Technology and the Arts at the University of North Texas, shares how to utilize AI to generate extraordinary artistic outcomes.

“Dear Daddy” — What Kind of Man Was Charles Ives?

What kind of man was Charles Ives? Based on the testimony of those who knew and met him, I would

Breaking Free of Your Longtime Role Is Hard. But It’s the Key to Progress.

Just look at the US presidential election… and US nonprofit arts organizations. Remember when this was just a red baseball ...

Human Figuration as an Expression of Ideas

These drawings move across centuries, from the Middle Ages to our blighted times in an unflinching rawness that gives no comfort. Nothing is omitted. You will find the sexual inscribed like watermarks of passion and anguish. The demonic appears in equal measure with the angelic. Most of all, not unlike cave drawings of prehistoric times, they are an existential record of a particular creature, Bellaart by name.

Graham Parker talk about the role of the orchestra as an artist driven civic leader

Graham Parker, CEO of the Louisville Orchestra, shares the extraordinary history of their founding and their role as an artist driven civic leader.

Vibrant (sic)

In the 90s I lived in Regina, Saskatchewan. When I moved there I had never been before, but I had been looking for work, my PhD in-progress dissertation was a bit of a train wreck (I finished it eventually), and the university there was kind enough to offer me a position. Our lives go through stages, and for me...

Quick Study: Arts Participation Rates at the State Level

In this episode, we look at a new NEA research report, 50 States of Arts Participation, to learn how patterns of art-going and art-making vary by state. A transcript is available here.

Introducing The Jazz Omnibus

I’m proud of my two published books (Miles Ornette Cecil – Jazz Beyond Jazz and Future Jazz) and my unpublished ones, too; the two iterations of the encyclopedia of jazz and blues; I edited, and my collaborations with some musicians creating their own books — but right now I’m crazy enthusiastic about The Jazz Omnibus: 21st-Century Photos and Writings...

“Very Likely the Most Important Film Ever Made about American Music”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LUMu1qisXoM&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent During the pandemic, unable to produce concerts, I found myself making six documentary films linked to my book Dvorak’s Prophecy. The

Federal Data on Reading for Pleasure: All Signs Show a Slump

A poet-friend of mine runs a blog that carries, as its tagline, “Would it kill you to read a #$%&% book?” To my ears, the slogan has come to sound less like a writer’s rant, or the crude appeal of a beleaguered parent, than a knee-jerk reaction to federal stats about reading in the U.S. Most recently, survey results...

How should we evaluate guaranteed income for artists?

Back in the day, I took a few years leave from academia to work in the public service, as a policy advisor to the Cabinet of the government of the province of Saskatchewan. We would receive from various line departments proposals for policy changes or new initiatives, and a large part of my job was to work with our...

The predictable result of arts organizations and cell phones

The Inquirer reports that cell phones are presenting a problem at the Philadelphia Orchestra: Another orchestra season, another soul-killing cell phone interruption. As banal as it may be, Saturday night’s mid-Bruckner cell phone incident at the Philadelphia Orchestra is a painful thing to ponder, a kind of musicus interruptus from which a performance never really recovers. Yannick Nézet-Séguin wasn’t asking for anything unreasonable when he once again suggested to the...

Meet Fabian Debora–Chicano Muralist and 2024 National Heritage Fellow

Art Works  is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and the NEA National Heritage Fellowships with a conversation with Chicano muralist and 2024 National Heritage Fellow Fabian Debora. Debora discusses his remarkable journey from growing up in the gang culture of Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, to becoming an acclaimed artist and advocate.  He shares how art became his lifeline during difficult times and the profound influence of...

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